


3:34 A.M.

by pollen



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, M/M, is this fluff? i think it is, it's like pwp except with fluff. fwp. i just made up a thing, with bonus failed introspection, wow look so many characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-16
Updated: 2014-04-16
Packaged: 2018-01-19 13:58:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1472404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pollen/pseuds/pollen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Eren had gone to the bar that night, it had been to get drunk, not to fall for some stranger that just so happened to have recently saved his ass, followed by running off with him to have a conversation at three in the morning that would lead to a little more than he had expected.</p><p>Also known as: Eren's attempts at being romantic repeatedly being shot down by Levi's deadpan sarcastic remarks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	3:34 A.M.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you everyone for being so lovely about my last fic; i hope you like this one as much as you did the last one \\((*^▽^*))/ you guys keep me motivated <3
> 
> edit: changed the title from 3 A.M. since I didn't notice someone had posted something with that very title a few hours earlier ;A; oops

Eren wasn’t really one to frequent bars. It’s not that he didn’t like drinking, or crowds of people, but the two combined weren’t really his favorite thing. There were times, though, when getting drunk seemed like the only solution to his problems. This was one of those nights. So, that evening, he found himself sitting among the bustling Saturday night crowd of Bar Maria, a lone killjoy surrounded by the night owls who had come to party. 

He sighed and ordered another shot, knowing fully well that he was going to regret his decision in the morning. At the moment, though, he really didn’t care, as he wasn’t nearly drunk enough to make any stupid decisions, which by his standards meant he wasn’t drunk enough, period.

Right then, a guy who had clearly already had so much to drink he would need a taxi home stumbled into the seat next to Eren’s. His cheeks were flushed from the alcohol, his creepily excited grin only meeting Eren’s mopey expression. 

“Hey baby,” the guy slurred, “You here with anyone tonight?”

Eren squirmed in his seat, not particularly wanting to engage in conversation. He just wanted to get drunk; he didn’t need some guy shamelessly hitting on him while he did so.

“I’m not interested, thanks,” he answered.

“Oh, come on,” the creep drawled, “you know you want it. Come to my place; I’ll show you a good time.”

“I’m really okay,” Eren insisted, beginning to get nervous. This guy was making him feel incredibly uncomfortable.

The creep scooted closer to Eren, making a move to grab his plaid button-down. Eren flinched reflexively, but when didn't feel hands pulling him forward, opened his squinting eyes to see that the guy had stopped. Instead, he was glaring at something behind Eren’s shoulder.

“What do you think you’re doing?” a voice spoke from behind him.

Eren looked back and saw a short, black-haired man in a white button-down shirt walking towards them. His reproachful gaze was directed at the drunk guy.

“Sweet talking this hot piece of ass,” the creep said, trying and failing to add some menace to his drunken grumbling. The short guy narrowed his eyes and snaked his arm around Eren’s waist. Instead of reacting, Eren just looked at it dumbly.

“If I were you,” the short guy hissed, his small stature and thin frame suddenly doing nothing to take away from the threat in his voice, “I wouldn’t talk about my boyfriend that way.”

Wait, boyfriend? What the hell was going on??

“Oh, man, you never told me you weren’t single,” the guy drawled, sounding angry and upset at the same time. 

“You never gave him the chance,” the black-haired guy spat.

“Yeah, man, whatever. If you ever decide to leave your short-ass boyfriend,” he said, his tone once again turning flirtatious as he turned towards Eren, “you just hit me up, okay baby?”

Eren felt the arm behind him tense up, but when the creep was out of sight, his supposed boyfriend exhaled and unwound his arm from behind Eren’s waist.

“There, he’s gone,” he said, voice growing cold, “You should go home now. You don’t even look old enough to be here.”

“I’m twenty-one!” Eren cried indignantly.

“Good, you’re legal. Now go home.”

Eren sat there for a moment, overwhelmed by the events that had just taken place. The guy had gone from overprotective to looking like he didn’t give a single shit in under a minute. Eren watched as the guy started walking, then realized he was leaving and called out to him.

“Wait!” he said, and the guy turned around. “What was all that about?”

“All what?”

Eren blushed, suddenly stumbling over his words. Alcohol tended to amplify his emotions, as if they weren’t exaggerated enough already. He silently cursed his slightly debilitated state of mind.

“What you just did,” he said. The guy just looked at him.

“You looked uncomfortable. I came to help. Why, did you not want me to?”

“No!” Eren exclaimed, “No, I just… Ah… Thank you?”

“You’re welcome. Goodbye.”

“Let me buy you a drink or something,” Eren said.

“Consider the favor repaid by leaving me alone from now on.”

Eren frowned. “Can’t I at least know your name?”

“Levi,” he told him, putting on a jacket at the same time, “I’ll be leaving now.”

Levi turned toward the exit of the bar and walked out the door, the orange glow from inside contrasting the blue, white, grey and black tones of the winter night outside.

After a second’s hesitation, Eren grabbed his coat and shoved it on, pulling his gloves out of his pocket and doing his best to get them on his fingers as he rushed out the door and into the snowy outside. 

“Wait!” he called, and Levi froze. Eren saw a puff of mist appear in front of him from what he assumed was a sigh. Levi turned around, expression bored as ever. From the light of the street lamp, Eren could see that Levi’s cheeks had turned a little bit pink in the cold.

“Walk with me,” Eren said. Levi rolled his eyes. 

“I have better things to do than walk around with a college kid at two in the morning.”

“Do you really?” Eren asked.

Levi seemed to consider this.

“No, I guess I don’t,” he said, exhaling and creating another wispy cloud of breath.

They started walking in no direction in particular, the city night mostly quiet, interrupted by the occasional car whizzing by and the crunching of their boots on the snow covering the sidewalk. Neither of them spoke for a few minutes.

“Thank you,” Eren suddenly blurted out.

“You already said that,” Levi stated blatantly.

“I know,” he answered, “but I mean it. Something bad could’ve happened back there.” Eren laughed nervously.

“Well, you’re welcome. Again.” 

They continued walking in silence. To Eren, though, it didn’t feel like the kind of silence that needed to be filled. He was content with just walking with Levi without speaking. It was the feeling that came with being up past midnight; this kind of silence was only broken for deep conversations or meaningless jokes that no one thought were funny unless it was that time of day.

A lone flake drifted downwards and caught on Eren’s nose. It was quickly joined by another, then another, and soon the sky was filled with dancing, swirling flecks of white. 

“Look, it’s snowing!” Eren shouted gleefully. He tilted his head back and watched as the snowflakes tumbled down from the dark grey, cloudy sky. A few of them got caught in his eyelashes. He blinked them away.

“You’re such a kid,” Levi said, shaking his head.

Eren just smiled at him and spun around on his heels as they walked.

Eventually they reached an empty park that was no more than a block long, street lamps lighting up the few snow-dusted trees and bushes that grew up from the blanket of white on the ground. Levi seemed to turn towards it, and Eren followed. They found a bench that was overlooking the boulevard, illuminated by a street lamp. The cold, the snow, and the current situation had all managed to help Eren sober up enough to function more or less properly. He gestured for Levi to sit down, and Levi did, Eren joining him afterwards. 

Levi let out a puff of breath, a faint smile visible on his lips.

“What am I even doing?” he asked quietly.

Eren didn’t answer, as he felt like the question wasn’t actually directed towards him. A clock tower in the east struck three times, announcing the arrival of the next hour of the morning. He listened intently as the ringing faded away into silence once again.

“You know, I was in a pretty bad mood when you found me,” he suddenly interjected.

“Yeah?” Levi asked.

“Yeah. But I’m not so much anymore. You’ve reminded me of the good part of living in this world.”

“I wouldn’t call myself the good part, brat,” Levi answered.

“I don’t know. I’ve met a lot worse.”

“You’ve probably met a lot better as well.”

Eren frowned.

“You don’t think very well of yourself, do you?”

Levi avoided his gaze.

“You just saved my ass! I’d say that makes you a pretty good person,” Eren continued.

“I’m defined by more than just my actions.”

“Tell me then, what’s so bad about you?” 

“Well, for starters, I’m blunt, I’m rude, and I’m too socially awkward to show people that I like them, so instead I insult them and hope they get the idea.”

“Is that what you’re doing with me?”

Levi just glared at him.

“Maybe,” he mumbled eventually. Eren blushed a little. What was he doing, falling for a random stranger he met at a bar no more than an hour ago? Well, it was past midnight, after all. He never really thought his decisions through at this hour of night. And Levi truly did seem like a good person.

“Well, anyway, none of that makes you a bad person. It just makes you different.” He looked up at the snow that was still falling steadily. “And we’re all different, so what does it matter?”

“You’re one of those people who gets deep at three in the morning, aren’t you?”

“How’d you guess?” Eren laughed.

Their comfortable silence returned for a few moments before Eren spoke up again.

“I mean it, though,” he said, “I really do think you’re a good person.”

Levi looked at him, his eyebrows knit together and his eyes tired, yet grateful.

“Thanks,” he said, sounding the most sincere he had all night.

A few moments later Levi continued, “You know, I was in a pretty shitty mood too.”

“Yeah?” Eren asked, genuinely curious to hear Levi talking.

“Yeah. I just…” he sighed, and started tapping his foot, his boot leaving an imprint in the still-falling snow, “I feel… alone, I guess. I suppose it’s my fault for pushing people away all the time. Clearly, I need someone to talk to, though, because now I’ve had too much to drink and I’m rambling to some random stranger I met at a bar about my social life.”

“So what you’re saying is you need a friend,” Eren said teasingly.

“You could put it that way,” Levi replied, grimacing.

“Well, are you interested in anyone?”

“No. People are dumbasses.”

Eren laughed. 

“You know, my yoga teacher used to say–”

He was interrupted by Levi throwing him the most condescending look he’d ever seen.

“Yes, I went to yoga classes!” Eren defended, “And they were awesome, too. Anyway, my yoga teacher used to say that we’re all just jewels in the giant net of life that are reflections of one another.”

“Those must be some shitty ass jewels,” Levi answered monotonously, “Reflecting the same douchebags over and over again? Yeah, I can believe that.”

“I think what she was trying to say was that we all have our good qualities,” Eren said, smiling, “but if you want to think of it that way, then that’s fine, I guess.”

They were quiet for a moment before Eren spoke up again.

“If people are so awful, then why did you help me out?”

Levi sighed, tilting his head up slightly.

“Because some people are more awful than others. Because, even before that creep got there, you looked like you were having the shittiest night of your life.” He paused for a moment, the next words coming out no more than a whisper. “Because you looked like how I imagine I did at the moment.”

Eren found his cheeks heating up despite the snow falling around them. 

“You were watching me before he got there?”

Levi shifted awkwardly in his seat. “Like I said, you looked as lonely as I did. I couldn’t help but sympathize.”

“Two lonely people meet at a bar, how cliché is that?”

“Are you trying to forcibly turn your life into a romantic comedy?”

“Maybe,” Eren said, grinning mischievously. He laughed at Levi’s sour expression and turned to look at the building in front of him. They were quiet again.

Eren caught Levi shivering and scooted closer to where he was sitting on the bench. At Levi’s questioning look Eren only shrugged and told him that the closer they were, the warmer they would be. Levi tried glaring at him menacingly but ended up shivering again, prompting Eren to pull him closer. Instead of complaining, Levi rested his head on Eren’s shoulder.

Eren watched as Levi’s cheeks turned even redder than they had been from the cold. Was he… blushing? Eren felt his own cheeks heat up at the thought. Maybe the alcohol hadn’t worn off as much as he had thought it had. Or maybe he really was falling for Levi.

Eren quickly learned to appreciate the warmth that came from being so close to Levi, though he had to admit that most of the heat came from embarrassment rather than their close proximity. Eventually, though, he got used to the presence leaning on his shoulder and was able to focus on other things again.

“Doesn’t it make you feel small?” Eren asked.

“What?”

“The city, at night,” he said, smiling, “It makes me wonder about how here alone there are tens of thousands of people who all have their stories and are living their lives right now and I’ll never know most of them.” He paused for a second. “And yet I’m here with you. It’s funny how things work out that way. Like fate.”

Levi turned towards him and glared.

“That is probably the sappiest thing I’ve heard in my entire life.”

“But you know it’s true,” Eren replied, grinning.

“No, I don’t,” Levi answered. 

He paused for a minute before continuing. “But I do know that you’ve improved the shitty thing I was calling my evening. So thanks,” he huffed, blowing another wispy cloud from his lips, “I guess.”

They sat in silence once again. Somewhere, the clock tower struck the half hour. Eren felt his mind racing at nine hundred miles an hour, far faster than it should be at half past three in the morning. There was no way he was drunk; he was far too aware of what was going on. And that meant he wouldn’t regret anything he did in that moment the next morning. He looked at the man sitting next to him and smiled.

“Do you ever wonder about how there are nights that you’ll remember your whole life, and others you’ll just forget?” Eren said, taking a deep breath, “Like, some melt into the others as repetitions of the same old thing, over and over, but some kind of stick with you even years later as that one time something special happened?”

“Are you saying you talk to strangers you met at a bar at three in the morning every night?” Levi asked, voice deadpan as ever.

“Can’t say that I do,” Eren laughed, “But isn’t it fun?”

“It’s like you’re trying incredibly hard to be deep, and completely and utterly failing.”

“And you,” Eren said, grinning, “are ruining the mood.”

“What do you suggest, then,” Levi huffed, “to make tonight memorable.”

“I’d say it’s memorable enough already. I just wanted an excuse to kiss you.”

Levi’s breath, which Eren had been watching come out in the wisps in the air, suddenly stopped. He turned to look Eren and the eye, and Eren gave him a sheepishly nervous smile.

“That’s the dumbest idea I’ve heard in my life,” Levi said, turning back to face forward. Eren felt something sink in his stomach, and he lowered his gaze.

“Then again,” Levi continued, Eren’s eyes snapping back up to his, “it’s been a while since I did something dumb.”

And then Levi was grabbing the corners of his shirt and pulling Eren towards him, their lips crashing together while Eren was still staring at Levi wide-eyed. Eventually he relaxed and kissed Levi back, his eyes closing as his previously cold lips grew warm.

When Levi pulled away, he looked as breathless as Eren felt. He stared Eren in the eye.

“Maybe I should do dumb things more often.”

Eren took that as an invitation to kiss him again.

 

**Author's Note:**

> as usual, feel free to point out any mistakes ^u^ thanks for reading!!


End file.
